Primary Navigation

Search

Mine living

What do you look for when buying a new piece of furniture? That it’s been built to last? Of course. Whether it goes with the rest of the room? Naturally. That it was once used to defend secret military installations in the Soviet Union? That’s a new one.

However, as strange as it may sound, this bizarre scenario is now possible thanks to Estonian sculptor Mati Karmin.

For the past five years he’s been salvaging underwater Russian sea mines to create a striking, almost post-apocalyptic style of furniture. The result is that you can now work at a desk, lie in a bathtub or relax in an armchair fashioned from scrap metal that once lurked below the waves concealing a submarine-sinking 240kg explosive charge.

The mines themselves used to be positioned to defend a secret Communist military facility on Naissaar, an Estonian island.

First manufactured in 1942, they measure 1.3 metres in length with two electromagnetic contact antennas and a third that was connected to a buoy.

The base was abandoned in the Nineties following the fall of the Communist regime and the mines were then decommissioned.

But, of course, this furniture isn’t quite as cold and hard as it first appears. The scrap metal has been paired with leather upholstery, glass and wood and decorated with hand-treated copper details to ensure that the raw military feel is mixed with a furniture essential — comfort.

No prices have been released yet, but expect to part with large amounts of cash when they are.